Crickets Out of Control - Maryland

rachelrachelSeptember 26, 2008

Okay - Not a disaster but I seem to be having a heyday with the black crickets called field crickets. I live in a house on a slab so I'm right on concrete. There are about 3 crickets in my house every day. They seem to get semi poisoned by the borax and flea spray on the carpets.

I am attributing this to the super wet Spring, but maybe it's just me. Is there something specific going on with my house or are a lot of you experiencing this invasion this Fall?

i WISH i only got 3 crickets a day. they get so bad here that i have watched them eat a hole in my window screens before. last year i swept up a 5 gallon bucket full every couple days in garage alone. buildings look to have living black walls on them during the big swarms.

this year i have put out season long insect control and so far seen good results. i will put out a second dose next week, just for good measure.

We're in NJ, have 2 homes--one in the suburbs and one in the country (both have basements, they're not on slabs). Crickets have been especially bad this year. We've had a lot of them in both places. Everyone's complaining about them. Ever since my husband put a bunch of those sticky pads around, I haven't seen any live ones--but the sticky things are covered and have to be replaced every week or so. They really work, and aren't that expensive.

Azzales:
Can I ask where you bought those sticky pads and what they are called? I am in NJ also and I am overloaded with those quiet beige crickets in the basement. So creepy, they are on the walls, floor, etc. They make no noise, just reproduce like mad.

I know this is an OLD thread and I'm pretty sure the interest has dwindled, but RachelRachel - you must live near me!! House on a slab in MD - with a billion field crickets. I must have every crawling critter made in, or around my house, including those box-elder beetles (sp?). The crickets (black ones) stayed outside, but I also had billions of those camel-back crickets everyone thought were spiders. Every morning I would have to cleaer them out of my shower - VERY UGLY YIKES!! I finally had an exterminator come out. They were so bad, even he was jumping. This company was from upcounty and had to come a long way to my house. But he came with great credentials, so I thought I'd try (after trying so many others that told me "crickets were harmless". He sent someone out the next day and five minutes after he left I could feel my mind relaxing - I could feel that they weren't there anymore. To treat the crickets, mice and beetles, cost me $600, for the year - $300 was for the beetles alone. After I became a repeating customer they started treating the beetles without charging. I tell this long story to say that that this guy was the only one that was able to put a dent in the cricket problem. After he treated my house for 2 years, I can tell that it really has helped. I lost my job and didn't have the money to repeat this year. This past Fall, I only saw 3 in the house. I will say though, that after I had my lawn sprayed for weeds, etc., the black crickets became rediculous in the yard. Every time I stepped somewhere in the yard, a few would jump - YUK!! Not sure if the debugging spray killed off the bugs that were preventing the crickets in the yard, but it is something to think about.

Anyway, I would try the exterminator - even though it's chemicals, it's better than the Raid stuff I was spraying. In fact the exterminator told me to never use that stuff again - too toxic. I never smelled anything, and don't think I had any side affects. I may try the exterminator one more time this Spring since the beetles were rediculous this past summer - not on my house because it had been sprayed, but everywhere else, including on the trees. Talk about turning a tree red!!

Anyway, again sorry for the long post, but hope this helps ya out for next year. The guy that comes to my house is super nice and very responsive. Email if you want info - they are in Rockvile. BTW, I received similar quotes from other exterminators - even those that didn't want to treat them. I also have a nephew that is an exterminator and said his company didn't think it was bad enough to do anything said beetle problem would never go away anyway. His price was the same.

Just what has worked for me.....I live in the Freeland area and you can bet, we have bugs and slugs of every type in a rural setting. The bags of granual stuff from the home centers, WalMart, Sam's, BJ's, Costco etc. do a fantastic job at a reasonable cost. Right around the end of March, first week of April, I spread it from the house out to about 25 feet. After a rain, it soaks into the ground and kills grubs (beetle larve) and and ant colonies. When various bug eggs hatch, it kills them too. Slugs want to crawl on the house and leave ugly brown streaks so I use the slug bait and killer from the house out about 2 feet. That does the trick. I haven't had any bugs or ants get in since I have been doing that. I still wanted to see where the daggon things were getting in. The house isn't that old so I figured some areas from settling may have opened some cracks. Sure enough, where the house meets the foundation, the bugs could crawl up and then find there way in from a spot in the sill plate or other spot. I sealed completely around the house and have not had one "field" bug since then.

Thanks 'irisman'! I am starting to see a lot of slugs too - two were tangled on the side of my house and left huge streaks all over the place. I have a little pup and am worried aobut toxic stuff because she gets into everything. She LOVES bugs!! I'm going to check the granulated stuff though. I'll just have to watch her. She likes to walk vs "go" out back, and I guess I need to walk her anyway.

I never have crickets in the house anymore because we sealed the foundation-to-slab cracks. Amazing how tiny a space they only need to squeeze in. The only way I got rid of crickets in my acre of garden was by getting three cats who were hungry all the time.